Every society divides its labour by gender, and every society treats its own division as the obvious one — grounded in strength, in nature, in how things have always been done. Put the societies side by side and the obvious falls apart: the same task lands on men here and on women three valleys over, and the reasons given for each arrangement contradict each other. Pick a task, then tap any society to see who does it there and what they say about why.
Pick a task
mostly mensharedmostly women
Eight tasks are listed on the right. Each one is plotted across five societies that do it differently.
Eight ordinary taskstap one to compare five societies